immigration

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen came to Baltimore today to talk about immigration and Central American gangs. Sessions tied that to Baltimore’s soaring homicide rate.

Sessions spoke of increases in violent crime nationwide, in part fueled by the Central American gang, MS-13, then turned to Baltimore.

President Trump’s decision to end DACA, his predecessor’s order protecting from deportation young people who were brought to the U.S. as children, has been met with legal challenges from several states. Maryland has joined one of these challenges; Attorney General Brian Frosh tells us what’s behind that suit. Plus, how are DACA recipients coping with President Trump’s decision? We hear from Baltimore City Public School teacher Jose Torres, and from Heymi Elvir-Maldonado, who came to the U.S. when she was eight-years-old.

DC-Maryland Justice for Our Neighbors will be holding a free informational legal clinic for current DACA holders on September 16th at Salem Hispanic United Methodist Church, 3405 Gough St., Baltimore, MD 21224. The event begins at 10 am. You must call 240-825-4424 to make an appointment to attend. More information available at their Facebook page.

Jesus Peraza, the Honduran who was picked up by immigration agents after he dropped off his son at Hampstead Hill Academy last March, will be forced to leave the country.

The notice came Tuesday in a letter to Jared Jaskot, Peraza's lawyer, from John Alderman, the deputy field director in Baltimore for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Alderman wrote that he could “not find a compelling reason” to allow Peraza, who has been in the U.S. for more than a decade, to stay.

In response to the arrest of Jesus Peraza, the Honduran father who was detained after dropping his 8-year-old son off at school, CASA, a Latino community organizing group, held a rally Thursday in front of immigration offices at Hopkins Plaza in downtown Baltimore.

Tucked into a corner off Eastern Avenue in Highlandtown, there are Latino-owned restaurants, blacked-owned barbershops, and one small grocery store owned by an immigrant-Nepalese family that opened in 2013.

The three Republicans on the Baltimore County Council want to deputize county corrections officers to enforce federal immigration laws. And they say they're planning to introduce legislation to do that.

This is the latest in the ongoing debate in the county on how to deal with people living in the country illegally.

Baltimore County could be on a collision course with the Trump administration over immigrants living in the county illegally. County Executive Kevin Kamenetz signed an executive order yesterday to protect those immigrants.

Before he signed the order, Kamenetz pointed out he was joined in the old County Courthouse by Latinos, Muslims, Jews, Catholics, African-Americans and members of the LGBT community.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is what Baltimore County looks like,” he said.

Maryland’s House of Delegates gave preliminary approval Monday to a bill prohibiting state and local police from enforcing federal immigration law.

The bill prevents state and local police from inquiring about immigration status during a traffic stop or an unrelated arrest. It also prohibits state and local corrections officers from holding someone based on what’s known as a “detainer,” a request by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents to keep someone without a warrant while they look into his or her immigration status.

Monday marks the 69th day of the General Assembly session, known as "Crossover Day." Any bills not passed by either the House or the Senate at the end of the day will face additional hurdles to becoming law. News director Joel McCord chats with WYPR's state government reporter Rachel Baye about what legislation has made the cut and what might not.

Democrats in Annapolis are preparing a slew of legislation and other initiatives that they say are direct responses to President Donald Trump and anticipated changes in federal policy. Among them is a bill that would make Maryland a sanctuary state for immigrants without legal status.

President-elect Donald Trump promised during his campaign to get tough on immigration.

Among other things, his campaign website promised to build an “impenetrable physical wall” on our southern border and he has promised to terminate President Obama’s program that protects undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children from deportation.

And that has raised anxiety levels in immigrant communities throughout the country as well as in Baltimore. “It’s very scary right now in our community,” said Nathaly Uribe Robledo, who entered the United States illegally as a child in 1997. “A lot of people are very afraid. They are not sure what’s going happen.”